


Twelve Days

by scullywolf



Series: TXF: Scenes in Between [195]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Gen, Mild Angst, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:14:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26357032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scullywolf/pseuds/scullywolf
Summary: Maggie Scully learns about Mulder going on the run. Set between NIHT2 and Daemonicus. Originally published in Touchstone Fanzine.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Series: TXF: Scenes in Between [195]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/287705
Kudos: 14





	Twelve Days

Maggie Scully has made a point of visiting her daughter and new grandson nearly every day since they came home from the hospital. Each time, Fox has made himself scarce, stepping out for an errand or going who-knows-where. She appreciated it at first, relishing the opportunity to have Dana and sweet baby William all to herself, but it is beginning to weigh on her that she hasn’t had a chance to clear the air with him after their unpleasant phone conversation the night of William’s birth. She is not sorry for the things she said, but forgiveness is just as necessary as it is difficult. He is, after all, in his own unconventional way, family now. 

Whether she likes it or not.

“Now Dana,” she says, as she hugs her daughter goodbye after another lovely visit, “I want you to tell Fox not to run away tomorrow when I stop by. It’s time for him to stop avoiding me.”

At the slightly ashen look on Dana’s face, she continues, “Oh, you don’t need to worry. I’m not going to read him the riot act. We’re just going to talk. I want to thank him for taking such good care of you since you’ve been home.”

“Mom, I…” Dana looks down, almost as if she is ashamed, and Maggie’s heart sinks.  _ If that man has let down my little girl again, so help me… _

“I haven’t been completely honest with you.” Dana directs her words at her mother’s feet, the same way she did whenever she was scolded as a child. “Mulder’s not… he had to go away for a while.”

Seemingly contradictory though it may be, Maggie finds herself equally disappointed and relieved. She has had a bad feeling about things ever since Fox “came back from the dead.” She has prayed and prayed over it, trying to view it as the miracle Dana said it was. She has wrestled with guilt over having such misgivings when her daughter believed her prayers had been answered. Yet no amount of prayer or guilt has allowed her to completely shed the feeling in her gut that something about his return was  _ wrong _ , and she has spent the past month or so just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

It seems, perhaps, that now it has.

“Dana,” she says tightly. “Did you and Fox have a fight? Did he make you feel unsafe?”

“No, nothing like that.” Dana looks up then, and the sadness in her eyes is heartbreaking. “Neither of us wanted him to go. Everything was wonderful, and then… and then I…”

She drops her gaze again, and Maggie pulls her in for another hug. They stand that way for a minute, Dana wordlessly clinging to her while Maggie strokes her hair. 

“Can you tell me what happened?”

Dana shakes her head. “It doesn’t matter.”

“But of course it does. If he’s abandoned you, abandoned his  _ son _ , how can you say that it doesn’t matter?”

“He didn’t  _ abandon _ us, Mom. I made him go. And not because I was afraid of him. I was afraid  _ for _ him.”

Maggie frowns, confused. “Dana, I don’t understand.”

“I know,” Dana says with a sigh. “And I’m sorry I can’t… explain everything to you. The point is that he’s gone, and I’m the one who convinced him to go, and now I don’t know if that was the right choice, or if he’s even okay, or…” 

“When did this happen?”

“Twelve days ago.”

Confusion gives way rapidly to dismay.

“Twelve da-- Dana! Are you telling me that you have been on your own with a baby for almost two weeks, and I am only  _ now  _ hearing about it?”

After they buried Fox, Dana had leaned on her. Had let herself be tended to and taken care of. Had let Maggie feel like her mother again, damn it all. After his return, she went right back to closing herself off and keeping secrets. Maggie  _ thought _ , after William’s birth, they were getting back to a place of closeness in their relationship, a place where Dana trusted her enough to open up about her struggles and her worries. It seems, however, that she was wrong.

“I’m fine, Mom.  _ We’re _ fine. I didn’t want to worry you.”

“This is  _ not _ fine. I cannot believe you kept me in the dark. Again!”

“Mom, please. You’ll wake the baby.”

Maggie clamps her mouth shut against the words threatening to escape, dark words propelled by the anger and hurt roiling in her chest. She wants to rage and scream, to throw things, to take her daughter by the shoulders and shake her until she understands.

“I am your mother,” she says at last, her voice strained. “I have seen you through cancer and heartbreak and one tragedy after another. It is not up to you to decide what information I can or cannot handle. Do you understand me?”

“And what about what I can handle?” Dana snaps, and there is a sharpness to her words that knocks Maggie back a little. “Look, I am sorry that it has taken me this long to tell you about Mulder being gone, but part of why I didn’t is because it was nice, for just a few hours a day, to pretend that he really has just gone to the store. That we are a normal family, and I am having a normal visit with my mom. I am sorry if that was selfish. But if you think the only reason I didn’t tell you was because I thought  _ you _ couldn’t handle it, then you are very much mistaken.”

And just like that, Maggie feels the fight go out of her. The hurt is still there, but the anger drains away. "Oh, sweetheart. I am so sorry."

However complicated her own feelings about Fox might be, there is no denying how much her daughter loves that man. Maggie may not understand anything about why he’s apparently had to leave, but she certainly knows a thing or two about what it’s like to sit at home with a baby, wondering if this will be the deployment from which her husband doesn’t return. How many times did she put on a brave face with the children, or stay up late into the night finding ways to keep herself busy with household chores, all to avoid succumbing to the worry that inevitably rose to the surface the moment she let her guard down? The pained look on Dana’s face right now is the same one she has seen countless times on the faces of the other Navy wives in her social circle, and on her own face in the mirror. 

It is, she realizes, the same look she also saw on Dana’s face last year, when Fox went missing. But that time he disappeared without warning; this time, it sounds like her daughter asked him to go. She was scared for him, she said, and sent him away in an effort to protect him. Protect him from what?

“Are you and William in danger?” she asks quietly.

Dana shakes her head. “I don’t think so. The threat was directed at Mulder, and… and it looks like he has drawn it away.”

“But who would threaten--?”

“I can’t,” Dana says firmly. “I’m sorry, Mom. I know this is hard to understand. Please just trust me that I would tell you if I could. But for your sake, and for mine,  _ and  _ William’s, I just can’t.”

Asking for trust is a pretty big request, given the circumstances, and Maggie purses her lips in frustration. “I don’t know how to help you if you won’t confide in me.”

“But you have been. Your visits, making me lunch and watching William and just sitting here talking to me… it helps. More than I can say.”

It is not the response she wants, but knowing her stubborn daughter, it is likely the best she is going to get, at least for now. She sighs, resigned.

“All right. But you have to promise me that you’ll let me know when there is more I can do. And I don’t just mean fixing meals and looking after the baby. It isn’t healthy to bottle everything up and try to hold all of your worries inside all the time. Believe me, I did that for years and had the ulcers to prove it.” She puts a hand on Dana’s shoulder and squeezes gently. “I am here for you no matter what. So promise me you’ll talk to me, when you’re ready?”

After a pause, her daughter nods. “I will.”

It is, however, not lost on her that Dana doesn’t meet her eyes as she says it.


End file.
